The enthusiastic response to HOMESCHOOLING: A PATCHWORK OF DAYS, has led to a flood of requests for more. Not only more "days" from different types of homeschooling families, but more detail, follow-up, and in depth reflections. It therefore seemed only natural to think about the next book as a sampler of weeks! I have begun collecting "samples" and I am asking for other families who are willing to write about their homeschooling experience in the same manner of detail and reflection as in HOMESCHOOLING: A PATCHWORK OF DAYS. Obviously, this will take you some time to make notes, write them up, polish them, weave in your thoughts, misgivings, wonderings, experiences that have lead to your decisions, interactions, and the ability to bring to live a week in your home. I will then ask you to flush in some areas and, through back and forth "interview" questions, I will edit a final draft for your family's approval.
Here is a sampling of the kinds of information I will want to know: How does your family begin the day? How does everyone wake up--alarm clock, Mom sings or shakes, early risers, sleep as late as you want? How do breakfast and clean-up happen? How do kids get started on their day? What style of learning takes place? While you are doing one thing, what are the others doing? How do you settle squabbles, interruptions, or the "I don't want to" response? How do the children interact with each other? How do you teach children of all different ages? What do you do with the little ones? How do you handle irritability, noise, mess or time for yourself? Do you feel inadequate in some areas, proficient in others? How do parents find time to talk, plan, and be together? Do you have outside activities, work, or driving arrangements to make? How does the day end and at what time? What role does each parent play in the homeschooling process? What is the weather like during the week you choose and how does it affect your days? Do you live on a remote farm or in an inner city? What is your community setting and reaction to homeschoolers?
After choosing resources, the most pressing concerns that families face are about how to pull everything together while navigating through the days, dealing with the temperaments of various family members, their learning styles, values, beliefs and interests. How do you resolve conflicts, struggles, anxieties, ambivalences? How do you handle anger and guilt? How do you manage children who are spontaneous learners or resistant ones? How do you structure time, organization of home, academic work, household chores, meals and laundry? (What is it like to be the principal, teacher, aide, playground monitor, cafeteria director, bus driver and custodian all at once?) How do your children get together with other children? How does homeschooling affect your marital relationship and decision making? How much do you coach, facilitate, or push? If we could become that "fly on the wall" what would we truly see and hear in your home? That you write about a "real" week is most important because, for many of us who tend to make comparisons and gauge ourselves against what we think is ideal, we often imagine that in everyone else's house there is a "perfect" mother like Ma Ingalls and that all goes smoothly, naturally and cheerfully. But what about the rest of us who fall short of these expectations? Are we the only worriers that lose sleep over the nagging reminders of the imperfections we feel at home? Can we "turn around" a difficult day or do we hope for a fresh start the following day? Much of this information can be part of your overview/history for the whole week, with each of the specific days following. You will probably want to reflect on your week at the end. By including a whole week, readers can experience day to day changes--perhaps a "bad" day surrounded by "good" days--and feel the general context of your week, including weekend learning and activities.
I will also ask you to note the resources your family uses; the books you're reading, your outside activities, and support group opportunities. I will ask for planning or record (log) pages if you keep them so that others can see various methods of documenting a specific day's events, knowing full well that what is written on record pages is the what and not the how of the day. Most of us seem to always look for better ways to keep track of our homeschooling activities. You will be given the opportunity to add an UPDATE (as the book nears completion) so that readers can experience the process of change in homeschooling families. Please remember, I am not looking for just your weekly schedule alone, but for the details and flavor of your week in all its variety.
If you are interested in participating, please e-mail me. You will NOT need to send me your "day" yet, but please write a few paragraphs that let me know something about who your family is (how many children and their ages), what kind of homeschooling you do, and a brief description of the role of each parent in the process of homeschooling (who works outside the home, makes homeschooling plans and decisions, etc.) Please note any special interests of parents or children, geographic highlights, how many years you've homeschooled and perhaps a summary of how your homeschooling has changed since you first started--just enough to give me an idea of what you're about. If the process of putting together this book is anything like the last book, it will take a while to gather and then make selections that are based on a wide variety of styles, ages, interests, and even geographic locations.
You are not making a commitment at this point if you decide to respond. I will need all final submissions to either be e-mailed or submitted on a 3 1/2" floppy disk in an ASCI format. I will respond to each family who e-mails me.